Post by Bai T'seng on Jul 15, 2010 19:50:42 GMT
T'seng had since left some of the villages around Xin Ye and gone towards the city proper to find some new work. He couldn't deny, he enjoyed being nice and helping people, but that was because he knew they wouldn't be able to pay him properly for any services he rendered. Though, at their insistence he had participated at a banquet they threw for him before leaving, so if nothing else, he always had a home and some food in his belly. Though his mind was beginning to go restless, he needed some money. He had squirreled away some gold coins in a sack hidden at the village. But that was for dire emergencies. He had no spending money to speak of, just his horse, and the support of the people around Xin Ye.
As he rode up to the gate the guards stopped him, wondering why a man wearing full armor and carrying weapons approached the town, "Halt! We are sorry to trouble you traveler, but we require to know your business here!"
T'seng nodded, he knew this was going to be standard proceedure for probably any town he wanted to enter, save for the villages where the people knew his face. "That's quite alright sirs, I've come only to seek work here. Is there a tavern about where I could find some work as a bodyguard? Perhaps a merchant gathering place," he replied respectfully, yet inquisitively. The guards looked at each other, then looked him over, then finally spoke back, "Very well man, you don't seem like a bandit. Bandit's don't speak as nicely as you," there were slight chuckles from the guard detail present. "Yes, there are taverns about Xin Ye, the market place too has a square, though there is no real gathering place for the merchant's established. Check any of those locations," the lead guard finished. Bandits? Well, looks like I'm in luck, T'seng thought. He replied aloud, "Thank you sirs, perhaps you could point out the largest tavern for me? I am afraid I have never been in Xin Ye's city before." The lead guard nodded and stepped forward, coming alongside T'seng's horse, T'seng leaned in the saddle a bit to hear him, "You go straight down this road about 200 feet and make a left, then go about another 50 feet and turn right so that you are moving in the direction you were before. Then on your left you'll see the tavern's sign hanging above the entrance, can't miss it." T'seng nodded, "Thank you." The guard returned the nod and they allowed T'seng to pass.
He followed the instructions until he came up to the tavern. It seemed large for such a small city like Xin Ye. Maybe the inhabitants were all boozers. He tied his horse up and put his halberd on the ground, luckily there was a slightly raised deck at the entrance of the tavern, so he slid it under there to avoid having it stolen.
He then opened the door, still wearing his Dao on his left hip. As soon as he entered he heard some men talking about a large round table whilst sipping drinks, "It's bad enough," one said. "Now we must deal with marauders. I can't believe this nonsense!" The other five nodded, then another spoke, "The thing is, they know this is the fastest route, so it is our best chance to make deliveries on time. It is terrible, every time I go out I hire some young men to help protect and some of them always die." "Perhaps they are more interested in blood-letting than actual plunder, the scum," another chortled. The other three nodded. T'seng thought, This is, absolutely perfect. Bandits raiding merchants... I am assured payment, and exercise![/color]
"Excuse me sirs, but did I overhear that you are facing difficulties with marauders?"
The conversation stopped as all six turned to look at T'seng, the lead merchant then spoke, "Why yes, you heard correctly. Who are you, may I ask?" "My name is Bai T'seng, mercenary captain. I am in search of work, I was wondering if you'd like to contract me to assist you all? I have dealt with petty bandits before, usually they flee at the first sign of an actual fight. There is no need to constantly hire out young men who are more piss and vinegar than brains to do your work when I am here. Not only am I confident that I can outfight any bandit around these parts, I am confident I can outwit them as well. So, what do you say," T'seng smirked after giving his spiel, this would be hard to pass up. If for anything, they'd at least give him a chance to do it, hoping to get rid of such a cocky man. The lead merchant nodded and then looked at the rest, "Well gentlemen, it seems our joint venture just got the help it would need to get off the ground," he turned back to Bai T'seng amidst murmurs of acquiescence, "when can you start?" T'seng's smirk turned into a grin, "Right now!" The lead merchant nodded, somewhat surprised at his enthusiasm, "Very well, we have already hired some men to help protect the shipment going out tomorrow, you can join them. They actually have rooms in this tavern for the night. We can put you up in one too, they are at that group of tables over there," the merchant pointed across the parlor, "why don't you introduce yourself?"
T'seng turned after bowing to show his gratitude, the lead merchant got up to go speak with the tavern keeper and arrange a room for T'seng to stay in. T'seng arrived at the table and introduced himself. After exchanging pleasantries and informing the men of what was happening T'seng and the rest retired for the night.
The plan was going to be good. He didn't figure the bandits were too honorable, much less intelligent. When one took to that sort of work, those two attributes were usually low on the list. Revolutionaries, however, those things were usually prerequisites for their type of work. T'seng didn't think of himself too much as a revolutionary, yet, anyway. Though he did believe the people had, in general, received the short end of the stick. Poor treatment for the common folk seemed to be more common than the folk themselves.
The next morning T'seng rose, got dressed and went down to the parlor for a bite to eat. He had a bowl of rice, some vegetables and some warm milk. It was simple food, but that is all one really needs. T'seng didn't have the apparent 'need' to eat meat like most men did, he found the stupor caused by trying to digest it usually made one more vulnerable than it did to the contrary. Not to mention, raw meat always caused sickness, raw vegetables on the other hand, never caused those kinds of problems. He had learned this the hard way, but that is a tale for another time.
When everyone had awaken and assembled outside the tavern they made their way to the square in the marketplace. There the merchants had assembled the caravan and were preparing to go. T'seng took one look at the caravan and knew immediately why they had such troubles, it was too long to defend with only a handful of men. They had about 20 guards for 10 carts. T'seng shook his head, but an idea popped into his brain as he did.
"Can you all unload the front running carts? If they fit about five men each, and they look like they do, at least five men. We can load them full of our men here, and when the bandits come up, they can hop out and wipe them out! I'll ride out alongside the front running carts, while the rest of the caravan should stay behind. This way, since bandits are cowardly, they will see one man guarding four carts, and they will gladly come to attack. The caravan might run a bit slower, but you'll get all your goods through."
The merchants nodded, the guards and the drivers rearranged things as T'seng said, then the guards hopped into the first four carts. The plan would work beautifully, since the carts themselves were covered. Once situated, they left the city.
They traveled on the road for a few hours until they came upon a hill with some trees scattered about it. For some reason, the hairs on T'seng's neck prickled up. He could feel he was being watched. "This is probably where the ambush is going to be coming,[/color] he thought. Within the next ten minutes there were some war cries emanating from the trees as about 25 bandits came running down the hill and 5 more came riding up on horseback. It was time to get down to business proper for T'seng.
"Get out now," he yelled. He could see at least one horsemen look to another and laugh, obviously thinking T'seng was talking to them. He raised his Crescent Spear and rode off to kill the horsemen while the rest of the guards scrambled out of the carts. The plan worked, 30 against 20, yet the smaller group had the element of surprise. As armed guards jumped out of the carts, swords and spears at the ready the bandits quickly had the realization that they were the ones whom had been ambushed. T'seng lanced one rider as he went past them. It took them a few seconds to realize they had lost a man in the pass, but the reared about and charged at T'seng, swords raised high. T'seng reared his own horse and charged the foolhardy bandits one again, it seemed all this plunder had made their brains slow, he lanced another clean off his mount in the pass and reared about. The remaining mounted bandits looked at him, and then at each other. All three charged at him now, T'seng pivoted his mount sideways and prepared to dodge and stab. The bandit riders slowed as the approached and began to take wild swings at T'seng. T'seng blocked one slash, parried another with a circular motion of the blade and stabbed the attacker. One came in to stab and T'seng batted the blade away from his enemy's hand and reared his horse up. As the horse came down the last attacker tried to stab him as well, but T'seng made a sweeping motion of the Crescent Spear, the weight of his weapon and force of his swing throwing the blade away from his enemy and killing the the both of them in the process. The horses bucked wildly and ran off down the road, their dead riders sliding from their mounts onto the road as they went. T'seng then turned his horse to see the fight with the other bandits, a few men on either side had been killed and a few stood back, staring at T'seng with their jaws dropped. As the guards pressed the attack, killing the bandits whom were now divided between fighting and staring dumbstruck, T'seng spurred his horse forward to get into the thick of it. The ones staring began to run in fear, while those unaware were quickly caught by T'seng. With a slashing motion one man had been cut down the back, screaming in pain. T'seng made another sweeping motion of the halberd, killing about four bandits in one stroke. The rest of the bandits now began running for their lives, a few being caught by the guards, whom had only lost 3 men in the scuffle. T'seng called out to the guards as he rode off to kill those fleeing, "Keep at least one alive, we'll need to find out where their hideout is!"
As he rode the bandits down one by one, a familiar feeling overtook him. The rush of battle was now flowing through his veins, though admittedly short-lived the fight was enough to get his adrenaline flowing. When he had finished, he rode back to the caravan, the guards were standing around one unfortunate man, kicking him half-to-death. "That's enough, if he's dead, he can't talk. We'll take him to the delivery location and see if he wants to talk. Tie the dead bodies of our comrades to the carts, their families will no doubt want to at least see the bodies. The rest of you, get back into the cart, grab what weapons you can off the bandits' corpses."
The men did as they were told and within the next few hours the whole caravan had arrived at Wan. Ah, home sweet home, as if! The captured bandit was taken to the guard house and interrogated by the men there. He spit out the location of the bandits' camp easily enough and was then taken to the dungeons of the city. The merchants had since made their deliveries, collected their payment and given the guards their pay. T'seng too had been given payment, a fair share more than the others, though this was done in private. The guards as well had thanked him for helping them track down the bandits. They had asked him if he wished to participate in the hunt. T'seng agreed, especially since they offered him payment of their own to join them.
At noontime the next day, a party of trained guards along with T'seng went out to the location divulged by the captured bandit. There, they clung to the trees, a few of the archers in the party, upon T'seng's recommendation had wrapped their arrows in oil-soaked cloth. It was midday, and they had a few torches lit. People they passed looked at them like they were insane, or a cult, or both even! But for all the strange looks, this was the pay off, "Launch the flaming arrows into their tents, as the rush out to deal with the fire, we'll catch them by surprise," T'seng said in a hushed tone. He was now on-foot with the guard party, having decided to leave his horse tied up with the place the merchant party was staying. His halberd too had been left behind in the care of the merchants, with just his Dao on his left hip, he planned to get up close and personal with the bandits.
"Fire!"
Flaming arrows flew into the middle of the camp striking tents in the broad side, the grass around them as well caught fire. Shouts rose from the camp before smoke could, yet they couldn't muster fast enough, the tents were already starting to be devoured by the fires.
"Go, take them out!"
The whole guard force, about 100 men charged from the tree line about the clearing in the forest. The bandits were dazed and confused, as figures emerged from the smoke, the gleam of steel being shot through the haze. He drew his Dao on one bandit, killing him in the motion, then T'seng cut another two down with quick slashes across the upper chest, most of the bandits were killed in seconds. Like a true military man, even in the midst of fire he kept his cool and continued to kill any bandit that crossed his path. Even the guards were getting a bit jumpy as the fire danced around them. Within another couple of minutes, the entire camp stood devoid of life. Its original occupants having been slaughtered. If there was a leader, he had either run off or more than likely had been killed in the surprise attack.
The guards stomped out the flames as the tents burnt to ashes. There was a meager store of gold and such that the guards took. No doubt to pocket, but under the pretense of contraband they took it anyway. T'seng had nothing to gain further from it. That money was undoubtedly tainted with blood. Only ill-fortune would befall those who partook of it. Besides, he was being paid by the guards anyway.
They marched back to the city of Wan and debriefed. There T'seng was commended for his prowess in battle and given his second bout of payment for the trip. With that he took his leave of the guards, went back to the tavern, got his horse and halberd and left for Xin Ye.
Lucrative trade indeed.
END.
As he rode up to the gate the guards stopped him, wondering why a man wearing full armor and carrying weapons approached the town, "Halt! We are sorry to trouble you traveler, but we require to know your business here!"
T'seng nodded, he knew this was going to be standard proceedure for probably any town he wanted to enter, save for the villages where the people knew his face. "That's quite alright sirs, I've come only to seek work here. Is there a tavern about where I could find some work as a bodyguard? Perhaps a merchant gathering place," he replied respectfully, yet inquisitively. The guards looked at each other, then looked him over, then finally spoke back, "Very well man, you don't seem like a bandit. Bandit's don't speak as nicely as you," there were slight chuckles from the guard detail present. "Yes, there are taverns about Xin Ye, the market place too has a square, though there is no real gathering place for the merchant's established. Check any of those locations," the lead guard finished. Bandits? Well, looks like I'm in luck, T'seng thought. He replied aloud, "Thank you sirs, perhaps you could point out the largest tavern for me? I am afraid I have never been in Xin Ye's city before." The lead guard nodded and stepped forward, coming alongside T'seng's horse, T'seng leaned in the saddle a bit to hear him, "You go straight down this road about 200 feet and make a left, then go about another 50 feet and turn right so that you are moving in the direction you were before. Then on your left you'll see the tavern's sign hanging above the entrance, can't miss it." T'seng nodded, "Thank you." The guard returned the nod and they allowed T'seng to pass.
He followed the instructions until he came up to the tavern. It seemed large for such a small city like Xin Ye. Maybe the inhabitants were all boozers. He tied his horse up and put his halberd on the ground, luckily there was a slightly raised deck at the entrance of the tavern, so he slid it under there to avoid having it stolen.
He then opened the door, still wearing his Dao on his left hip. As soon as he entered he heard some men talking about a large round table whilst sipping drinks, "It's bad enough," one said. "Now we must deal with marauders. I can't believe this nonsense!" The other five nodded, then another spoke, "The thing is, they know this is the fastest route, so it is our best chance to make deliveries on time. It is terrible, every time I go out I hire some young men to help protect and some of them always die." "Perhaps they are more interested in blood-letting than actual plunder, the scum," another chortled. The other three nodded. T'seng thought, This is, absolutely perfect. Bandits raiding merchants... I am assured payment, and exercise![/color]
"Excuse me sirs, but did I overhear that you are facing difficulties with marauders?"
The conversation stopped as all six turned to look at T'seng, the lead merchant then spoke, "Why yes, you heard correctly. Who are you, may I ask?" "My name is Bai T'seng, mercenary captain. I am in search of work, I was wondering if you'd like to contract me to assist you all? I have dealt with petty bandits before, usually they flee at the first sign of an actual fight. There is no need to constantly hire out young men who are more piss and vinegar than brains to do your work when I am here. Not only am I confident that I can outfight any bandit around these parts, I am confident I can outwit them as well. So, what do you say," T'seng smirked after giving his spiel, this would be hard to pass up. If for anything, they'd at least give him a chance to do it, hoping to get rid of such a cocky man. The lead merchant nodded and then looked at the rest, "Well gentlemen, it seems our joint venture just got the help it would need to get off the ground," he turned back to Bai T'seng amidst murmurs of acquiescence, "when can you start?" T'seng's smirk turned into a grin, "Right now!" The lead merchant nodded, somewhat surprised at his enthusiasm, "Very well, we have already hired some men to help protect the shipment going out tomorrow, you can join them. They actually have rooms in this tavern for the night. We can put you up in one too, they are at that group of tables over there," the merchant pointed across the parlor, "why don't you introduce yourself?"
T'seng turned after bowing to show his gratitude, the lead merchant got up to go speak with the tavern keeper and arrange a room for T'seng to stay in. T'seng arrived at the table and introduced himself. After exchanging pleasantries and informing the men of what was happening T'seng and the rest retired for the night.
The plan was going to be good. He didn't figure the bandits were too honorable, much less intelligent. When one took to that sort of work, those two attributes were usually low on the list. Revolutionaries, however, those things were usually prerequisites for their type of work. T'seng didn't think of himself too much as a revolutionary, yet, anyway. Though he did believe the people had, in general, received the short end of the stick. Poor treatment for the common folk seemed to be more common than the folk themselves.
The next morning T'seng rose, got dressed and went down to the parlor for a bite to eat. He had a bowl of rice, some vegetables and some warm milk. It was simple food, but that is all one really needs. T'seng didn't have the apparent 'need' to eat meat like most men did, he found the stupor caused by trying to digest it usually made one more vulnerable than it did to the contrary. Not to mention, raw meat always caused sickness, raw vegetables on the other hand, never caused those kinds of problems. He had learned this the hard way, but that is a tale for another time.
When everyone had awaken and assembled outside the tavern they made their way to the square in the marketplace. There the merchants had assembled the caravan and were preparing to go. T'seng took one look at the caravan and knew immediately why they had such troubles, it was too long to defend with only a handful of men. They had about 20 guards for 10 carts. T'seng shook his head, but an idea popped into his brain as he did.
"Can you all unload the front running carts? If they fit about five men each, and they look like they do, at least five men. We can load them full of our men here, and when the bandits come up, they can hop out and wipe them out! I'll ride out alongside the front running carts, while the rest of the caravan should stay behind. This way, since bandits are cowardly, they will see one man guarding four carts, and they will gladly come to attack. The caravan might run a bit slower, but you'll get all your goods through."
The merchants nodded, the guards and the drivers rearranged things as T'seng said, then the guards hopped into the first four carts. The plan would work beautifully, since the carts themselves were covered. Once situated, they left the city.
They traveled on the road for a few hours until they came upon a hill with some trees scattered about it. For some reason, the hairs on T'seng's neck prickled up. He could feel he was being watched. "This is probably where the ambush is going to be coming,[/color] he thought. Within the next ten minutes there were some war cries emanating from the trees as about 25 bandits came running down the hill and 5 more came riding up on horseback. It was time to get down to business proper for T'seng.
"Get out now," he yelled. He could see at least one horsemen look to another and laugh, obviously thinking T'seng was talking to them. He raised his Crescent Spear and rode off to kill the horsemen while the rest of the guards scrambled out of the carts. The plan worked, 30 against 20, yet the smaller group had the element of surprise. As armed guards jumped out of the carts, swords and spears at the ready the bandits quickly had the realization that they were the ones whom had been ambushed. T'seng lanced one rider as he went past them. It took them a few seconds to realize they had lost a man in the pass, but the reared about and charged at T'seng, swords raised high. T'seng reared his own horse and charged the foolhardy bandits one again, it seemed all this plunder had made their brains slow, he lanced another clean off his mount in the pass and reared about. The remaining mounted bandits looked at him, and then at each other. All three charged at him now, T'seng pivoted his mount sideways and prepared to dodge and stab. The bandit riders slowed as the approached and began to take wild swings at T'seng. T'seng blocked one slash, parried another with a circular motion of the blade and stabbed the attacker. One came in to stab and T'seng batted the blade away from his enemy's hand and reared his horse up. As the horse came down the last attacker tried to stab him as well, but T'seng made a sweeping motion of the Crescent Spear, the weight of his weapon and force of his swing throwing the blade away from his enemy and killing the the both of them in the process. The horses bucked wildly and ran off down the road, their dead riders sliding from their mounts onto the road as they went. T'seng then turned his horse to see the fight with the other bandits, a few men on either side had been killed and a few stood back, staring at T'seng with their jaws dropped. As the guards pressed the attack, killing the bandits whom were now divided between fighting and staring dumbstruck, T'seng spurred his horse forward to get into the thick of it. The ones staring began to run in fear, while those unaware were quickly caught by T'seng. With a slashing motion one man had been cut down the back, screaming in pain. T'seng made another sweeping motion of the halberd, killing about four bandits in one stroke. The rest of the bandits now began running for their lives, a few being caught by the guards, whom had only lost 3 men in the scuffle. T'seng called out to the guards as he rode off to kill those fleeing, "Keep at least one alive, we'll need to find out where their hideout is!"
As he rode the bandits down one by one, a familiar feeling overtook him. The rush of battle was now flowing through his veins, though admittedly short-lived the fight was enough to get his adrenaline flowing. When he had finished, he rode back to the caravan, the guards were standing around one unfortunate man, kicking him half-to-death. "That's enough, if he's dead, he can't talk. We'll take him to the delivery location and see if he wants to talk. Tie the dead bodies of our comrades to the carts, their families will no doubt want to at least see the bodies. The rest of you, get back into the cart, grab what weapons you can off the bandits' corpses."
The men did as they were told and within the next few hours the whole caravan had arrived at Wan. Ah, home sweet home, as if! The captured bandit was taken to the guard house and interrogated by the men there. He spit out the location of the bandits' camp easily enough and was then taken to the dungeons of the city. The merchants had since made their deliveries, collected their payment and given the guards their pay. T'seng too had been given payment, a fair share more than the others, though this was done in private. The guards as well had thanked him for helping them track down the bandits. They had asked him if he wished to participate in the hunt. T'seng agreed, especially since they offered him payment of their own to join them.
At noontime the next day, a party of trained guards along with T'seng went out to the location divulged by the captured bandit. There, they clung to the trees, a few of the archers in the party, upon T'seng's recommendation had wrapped their arrows in oil-soaked cloth. It was midday, and they had a few torches lit. People they passed looked at them like they were insane, or a cult, or both even! But for all the strange looks, this was the pay off, "Launch the flaming arrows into their tents, as the rush out to deal with the fire, we'll catch them by surprise," T'seng said in a hushed tone. He was now on-foot with the guard party, having decided to leave his horse tied up with the place the merchant party was staying. His halberd too had been left behind in the care of the merchants, with just his Dao on his left hip, he planned to get up close and personal with the bandits.
"Fire!"
Flaming arrows flew into the middle of the camp striking tents in the broad side, the grass around them as well caught fire. Shouts rose from the camp before smoke could, yet they couldn't muster fast enough, the tents were already starting to be devoured by the fires.
"Go, take them out!"
The whole guard force, about 100 men charged from the tree line about the clearing in the forest. The bandits were dazed and confused, as figures emerged from the smoke, the gleam of steel being shot through the haze. He drew his Dao on one bandit, killing him in the motion, then T'seng cut another two down with quick slashes across the upper chest, most of the bandits were killed in seconds. Like a true military man, even in the midst of fire he kept his cool and continued to kill any bandit that crossed his path. Even the guards were getting a bit jumpy as the fire danced around them. Within another couple of minutes, the entire camp stood devoid of life. Its original occupants having been slaughtered. If there was a leader, he had either run off or more than likely had been killed in the surprise attack.
The guards stomped out the flames as the tents burnt to ashes. There was a meager store of gold and such that the guards took. No doubt to pocket, but under the pretense of contraband they took it anyway. T'seng had nothing to gain further from it. That money was undoubtedly tainted with blood. Only ill-fortune would befall those who partook of it. Besides, he was being paid by the guards anyway.
They marched back to the city of Wan and debriefed. There T'seng was commended for his prowess in battle and given his second bout of payment for the trip. With that he took his leave of the guards, went back to the tavern, got his horse and halberd and left for Xin Ye.
Lucrative trade indeed.
END.
